Personal Narrative: My Involvement With Advanced Placement Chemistry

Strolling into Sinclair Community College, keeping my fear off my face, I convinced myself I was ready to take this test. After all,

My earliest memory of science in elementary school was in first grade. I remember walking into the classroom early in the morning and seeing plant pots lined up in the back of the room. Of course one of us asked, Mrs. Denny, what are those for? She answered like any experienced teacher “We will get to those after lunch. Thank you for noticing though.” As a young student, I was more interested about taking the plant home to my mom and showing her what I did. After lunch, we went on a walk to the atrium in the center of the school. Mrs. Denny pointed out the different kinds of plants that were in the atrium like flowers, and other small plants. We walked back to our classroom and talked about what a plant needs to grow and finally got to make a plant ourselves. We each had a cup of water, a cup of soil, a pot, and a plant. I also remember in third grade learning about the weather by creating a big picture of the water cycle with the clouds and why there is lightening and thunder. After we made the picture, we each got to write down a question about weather and Mrs. Heffernan went over each one. I loved science when I was little because I was able to explore and try new things. I struggled in math and reading because they were very black and white but science allowed creativity. I enjoyed science in elementary school because it was very hands on so I didn’t have to sit in my seat. I would define science has a content area that allows the individual to research and develop

As I breezed through the multiple choice sections and on to the free response questions, I began to feel a steady sense of ease as the information seemed to be coming back to me fairly quickly. The information, for the most part, had been imprinted onto my long term memory from the previous semester. Months later, when the memory of that stressful morning, and the night leading up to it, had since faded from memory, I received my score report for the exam. I had scored a perfect 5 out of 5. All that anxiety had been for nothing and in the end, I had received the score that I would never have thought possible on the morning of the

I engage in various extracurricular activities all year round. Currently, I am involved with ASU Prep’s high school color guard team, ASU Sun Devils, and the National Junior Honor Society. Additionally, I partake in ASU Prep’s competitive swim team and another that swims all year round. Now, I’ve competed and performed in color guard for four years now (counting 2016-2017). Every week I practice 3:30 to 5:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and compete against 28 other teams in the High School Regional Scholastic A. Class. Recently, we have debuted as the first high school team of ASU Prep in late 2016. The impact of our performance awed and inspired the judges so much so that we got to move up to the next competition class. I swim competitively during Fall Sports at school as well. These practices are held from 6:00 to 7:00 am before school.

When I sat down, removed my calculator, three number two pencils, and my admission ticket, I started to relax more and more. As the supervisor of the classroom handed out the book of questions along with the answer sheet, I thought to myself, “what if I get a bad score like before?” I knew I wasn’t the best test taker, but I just had to keep telling myself to try my hardest and just see how it goes. As the supervisor said “you have 45 minutes to complete this section of the test, you may start,” I gripped the pencil with my hand, and began to read the question and fill in the best answer of four options.

Science has become my favorite subject over the years, especially Chemistry. Taking AP Chemistry was the best decision I ever made because I instantly fell in love with chemistry. It was an interesting course that gave me insight on random things like why it rains. We did many cool labs, and I got to use tools and machines that I never would have used before in my life. For example, I got to use a spectrophotometer to record absorbtion of light in a solution. My favorite unit in chemistry was by far Intermolecular forces. They helped me understand the interactions between substances which explained why oil floats on water. Instead of getting an answer along the line of "it is denser", I understood that it was because the oil could not break

As I walked up the stairs of my school to what would be the first ever AP course in my life, my mind raced with anxious thoughts of what lied ahead. I was a sophomore taking AP Spanish Lang, something that my previous Spanish teacher had told me should come naturally due to my Mexican heritage. If only I could believe her, I had spent years trying to Americanize*its a formal essay don't use slang shit like americanize* myself to fit in with those around me.

Throughout high school, I always took more challenging courses, such as advanced placement chemistry. When our class took the Chemistry Olympiad Test I had the third highest score in the class and later passed the AP test which earned me college credits. I also took college night course to give me a head start in college. I was a member of The National Honor Society. When I graduated with honors from Oak Hill High School in 2015, I was in the top 10 percent of my class. Currently, I have, or taking now, upper-level classes such as statistics 211 and English 305. Since I am a student athlete I always strive to push myself to be better, both physically and academically. I am very involved in WVU Tech Biology Club, so I volunteer frequently. Recently,

It is a warm fall day and I’m getting ready to take the ACT’s. The time is six forty-five am and I am just waking up to get ready for the test. The very first thing I do to get ready is shower, and once I’m done I put on sweatpants and a t-shirts so that way I’m relaxed. I eat a big breakfast so that way I don’t get as hungry throughout the day. I then continue by getting in my car and drive to the school to take the test. I then proceed to check in, and they check me in a then direct me to the classroom in which I will be taking my test. I’m now in my seat waiting to be given the test and I know that I am ready for the test because I have prepared. There are many steps a person can take to successfully prepare him or herself for standardized

During my second year in a high school, I made the foolish the decision to take three Advanced Placement courses despite my counselor's warning; only three other students my age chose this course of action, yet I was guileless, headstrong, and ready to move into the fray. The three classes were Advanced Placement Biology, Chemistry, and World History combined with a rigorous cross country eight-mile cross-country run, and a demanding pre-calculus class. I went into AP Chemistry not knowing a thing about chemistry. I remember feeling a sense of insecurity around my peers, who were far more intelligent than I. As I sat listlessly in my one-armed desk chair, I could not grasp the words coming out of the instructor's mouth, vocabularies such as

Days passed nobody noticed that I was actually a year younger than everyone else. Two boys sat with me and continuously asked me for help. One day RJ (one of the boys) asked, “How are you so smart?” I whispered back “I am actually in seventh grade.” Matthew and RJ believed that it was admirable that I was a year younger, and felt slightly uncomfortable asking me for help. Word eventually got out that I was a seventh grader in an eighth grade math class. My classmates, who were a year older were then looking to me for help.

I am kind of freaking out right now with all of the pressure of this week- and this week is only three days long! My current grade in science is a B+, which means that to get it up to an A by the time that we get our final report cards, I have to get at least 98% on every single one of my assignments. We have a test coming up this week in science as well, so I will have to get a 100% on that, too. I have 5 orchestra objectives to cross off in order to get a 100% in that class and there are only 3 more lesson times scheduled for me, so I have to do a couple of make-ups! And in Social Studies, we are starting a new testing method that Foster Hull came up with, that I named and improved, and that Matt Gunn helped with also.

While attending the Chesterfield Technical Center this opportunity was presented, it was definitely a chance I was willing to take pass or fail. Though I knew I wasn’t mentally equipped or, fully prepared I was determined to give it my all. Buckling down to focus was my number one priority. Studying one whole night and, a little the next morning the next day was when I could say a life changing accomplishment was made. By the time I was eighty-five questions in my mind was full of doubt and my heart full of fear that I had already failed. When I had finally reached one hundred and, submitted to the next screen was there after when I raised my head to look up and in bold print read, “CONGRATULATIONS!!!” I had passed and, made an important dream reality.

I can think of few situations that are more frustrating than working with a group of people who are apathetic about the quality of work that they produce. I’m the type of person who tries to do my absolute best at everything I do but in my tenth grade chemistry class I was assigned to work with a group of my classmates who were the exact opposite of me. I quickly caught onto the kind of students that they were and I knew that when it came to labs, I would be the one doing most, if not all the work. We would always get good scores on our labs since I did most of the work but I felt a bit guilty because when it came to tests it was evident that my group mates didn’t know what to do. I was willing to help them but they never asked me to explain

During Elemtarty and Jr High School I always exceeded in classes such as science and math. When I got to high school it wasn’t any different, I still did well in both science and math classes. First semester of my junior year I took high school Chemistry with Mr. Johnston. Before entering the class, I was nervous because of all the things I had heard about his class. At the same time, I was excited because I love a challenge. Mr. Johnston’s class was nothing like the other high school chemistry classes around the county. There were multiple quizzes every week and test every two weeks. We learned things that other chemistry classes did not and his hand made test ended up being harder than the North Carolina State Exam for Chemistry. The class